Chart of the Day: Madoff’s 150-year sentence in context

Ex-financier Bernie Madoff, convicted of operating a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, served his first day of a 150-year prison sentence Wednesday.

Madoff’s sentence is long, but as an article in Forbes pointed out last month, Madoff’s sentence is only the fourth-longest given to someone for committing a white-collar crime in recent years. Sholam Weiss, convicted of racketeering, wire fraud and money laundering in the $450 million collapse of National Heritage Life Insurance, is serving an 845-year sentence.

Just for kicks, we thought we’d put Madoff’s sentence length into context by charting some other things that are shorter or longer than 150 years.

Note that the estimated cycle of Halley’s comet is 75 years, meaning that Madoff (if he were to live through the entire sentence) will be missing the next two comet sightings, which will be in the years 2061 and 2136.